Goodbye Glenwood electricity woes
Beefed up security at one of Glenwood's substation's notorious for cable theft could end cable theft related power outages.
GLENWOOD residents have been plagued by a spate of power cuts and surges caused largely by cable thieves. Responding to the problem, eThekwini’s Electricity Department were busy working on the South Ridge Road substation upgrading and installing new security measures when brazen vandals hit the substation again, creating a blackout in parts of Glenwood on Tuesday night.
There have been two cable theft incidents from the Jacques/ South Ridge Road substation this month. These resulted in outages and power surges in which many residents lost tens of thousands of rands worth of household appliances.
Councillor Nicole Graham met with resident James Martens on site, and later Mervyn Chetty from eThekwini Electricity to inspect the security at the substation. After seeing the inadequate security on site, Graham requested a more sophisticated system including an armed response alarm and pepper spray trigger which the Electricity Department had already begun work on this week.
“The Electricity Department has already sent out workers to fix the lights at the substation and get it ready for more safety measures to be installed. It is good to see that our concerns have not gone unnoticed. Although not a perfect solution, this system has been effective in decreasing cable theft in other areas, including Morningside,” she said.
Graham said it was important for the city to get a comprehensive task team established within Metro Police to deal with cable theft, much like the ‘Copper heads’ or Metal Theft Unit in the City of Cape Town.
“This specialised unit reduced losses due to cable theft from R22 million to just R496 8000 between 2007 and 2008. Previous motions by the DA to establish a similar unit in Durban were voted down by the eThekwini council in 2011, and cable theft has continued to escalate. It is time for the council to re-consider this stance. It is outrageous that consumers are regularly exposed to financial loss and prolonged outages due to cable theft,” she added.
Shocked by the gall of the cable thieves in the latest incident at the substation on Tuesday night, Maartens said they probably knew the security was being beefed up and that their days were numbered. He said he hoped the city would have the improved security measures in place immediately to stop more theft and power cuts.
